


Flightless

by silkplants



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Hufflepuff Alfred, M/M, Pottertalia, Ravenclaw Arthur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 07:30:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16908762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silkplants/pseuds/silkplants
Summary: Arthur is a Ravenclaw with fantastic grades in all his classes except for one. He goes to Alfred for help, but, rather than become an excellent flier, Alfred is more intent on getting him to accept his weaknesses.





	Flightless

Arthur pulled his blue and silver scarf down to his chin, wincing at the harsh winter air. He looked around the empty Quidditch field, shuddering and rubbing his arms. He’d purposefully been late to meet up with Alfred, a Hufflepuff in his year. They were supposed to meet ten minutes ago. But, Alfred was notorious for being late to every class and school function, excluding meals and Quidditch games. He was a Keeper after all. There was no game going on now, the sun was beginning to set, sky awash with different purples and oranges.

After waiting for another ten minutes, Alfred finally came running from the castle, carrying two brooms. Arthur looked at the broom, reminded of his failure. He was the perfect Ravenclaw, one of the top students in the school, and his house. Arthur was failing only one class, and that was Broom Flight. He just couldn’t seem to get a handle on the blasted thing, it would buck and jerk and eventually throw Arthur off. Once, it’d gone quite high up in the air, and then shook him off. He’d woken up in the infirmary with a broken leg.

But, the pressure from his family and his own expectations for himself wouldn’t accept failure. All his older brothers had been Gryffindor, as were his parents. All of them were at least decent at flying, most of them gifted. It seemed Arthur had been separate from them from the start, when he’d been sorted at age eleven. He should have expected to be a sub-par flier.

Alfred shook his shoulder, and snapped him from his thoughts. “Hey, hey Arthur? Come on, we should get started before it gets dark, yeah?” The Hufflepuff smiled at him, and pushed a broom into his hands. Arthur gave a weak nod, following Alfred to the center of the field.

The Hufflepuff seemed perfectly relaxed, whistling as he carried his broom over his shoulder. He seemed quite striking in the late evening light, but, Arthur shook it off. He was here for a lesson, after all. And there was no way he would date someone like Alfred, his grades were average, he was immature at times, and it wasn’t as if they were together often. It took Arthur five sugar quills and a chocolate frog to get Alfred to even give him a lesson. Originally Alfred wanted Arthur to do his Charms homework for him but Arthur had refused.

“So..how do you control it?” Arthur asked, looking down at the wooden tool in his grip. Alfred seemed a little confused about his question.

“What do ya mean?”

“I mean,” Arthur replied, throat tight with embarrassment. The question was dumb, he had to admit. “How do you..make it so that it doesn’t throw you off?”

“I dunno, it’s never tried to for me.” Alfred answered, giving a laid back and goofy sort of smile as he got on his broom, easily lifting it into the air. He looked down at Arthur. “Now you.”

Arthur got on the broom after a few moments of hesitance, hands shaking as he held on around the wooden stick, breathing a sigh. It was still, almost eerily so, but at least it hadn’t tried to kill him. Yet.

“Up.” Arthur commanded, and to his great surprise, it went up, hovering above Alfred now. Arthur seemed suspicious of the sudden compliance, and glanced at Alfred, who was giving a thumbs up and smiling.

“Hey, you’ve got it! What’d you even need me for, I mean, you got into the air! That’s a start!” Arthur was just beginning to smile, and then the broom bucked, and jerked, doing loops and going higher into the air of its own volition.

Arthur shrieked as he slipped, and held onto the broom by his left hand, fingers slipping one at a time. “Alfred!” He cried out, eyes wide. But, Arthur remembering thinking that, for a Quidditch player, Alfred was dreadfully slow. His last finger shaken off, he fell into the sand pit below, with a rather anticlimactic thud.

His head was swimming, and he laid on his back, staring at the sky with a disappointed sigh. He was fine, at least physically, which was a small comfort. The broom dropped from the sky and fell to the ground beneath his feet, and he kicked it away with a grunt.

“Arthur!” He heard Alfred yell, feet hitting the ground and running over. He knelt over Arthur and brushed his hair back, looking for cuts or bruises. Arthur just looked back up at him. The perpetual lonely and single part of his mind registered that he definitely understood why Alfred was very popular with girls. No matter what house they were in.

When Alfred seemed to find no injuries, he relaxed, and started to laugh. Arthur’s gaze grew cold, and he sat up, getting to his feet and nearly falling all over again. he curled his fists and stomped away from the sand pit. “I don’t find it so funny, thank you very much. Now, are you going to teach me or have I wasted my time? I’m beginning to believe that I have. I should have gotten Ivan to teach me.” He lashed out, voice sharp and rough.

Alfred’s smile disappeared almost immediately. He and Ivan were rivals, at least in his mind. “Hey, no way! I’m a much better teacher, don’t go!” He called for him. “Here, I’ll even let you use my broom, my special Firebolt, I’m sure that’ll work better!” Alfred smiled, confident, and Arthur sighed. Maybe it would work.

“…Okay.” The Ravenclaw relented, walking back over and taking the Firebolt from Alfred. Alfred took Arthur’s broom, getting on and floating up with ease.

Arthur attempted to follow suit, but, the Firebolt wasn’t having it. The moment he got it into the air, it did a loop, and dropped him face first into the sand yet again. He coughed up grains of sand and wiped his lips and eyes, glaring at Alfred, daring him to find it funny. Alfred was stifling a chuckle. “Hey, it’s okay Art! Just get back on, no big deal! My broom needs to get used to you, or something.”

Arthur scoffed at the idea, but figured ‘what the hell’ and got back on. At least if he died here there would be a witness to attest to the vendetta flying had against him. Then, the Firebolt threw him off. Again. And again. And again. He’d resigned himself to eventual failure at this point, but, a Kirkland didn’t give up. At least not when someone was watching.

He climbed on again, bruised and aching. Arthur simply sighed as he fell to the ground, half a shake from the broom enough to send him off.

Alfred was watching the whole thing, using Lumos to see once the sun went down. He’d found it funny at first, seeing the uptight and rigid Ravenclaw fall in the dirt over and over. But now it was just sort of uncomfortable, and he frowned as a battle-worn Arthur slipped onto the broom only to slide off the other side.

“Hey…” Alfred began, reaching down and taking Arthur’s hand, gently trying to pull him up. Arthur was on his feet for only a moment before falling back again, this time lying down and closing his eyes, exhausted. Alfred sat beside him.

“You know you don’t have to keep doing this right? Look, I know you’re good at pretty much everything, so is it really a big deal to just…. not be so good at this?” Alfred asked, cocking his head to the side and giving a lopsided smile.

“No,” Arthur grumbled, shaking his head. “I’ve got to do this, You don’t understand, my brothers would never let me live it down.

"Well I never liked your brothers anyway.” Alfred interjected, shrugging with a chuckle. “They aren’t like you, they never like, thought before doing anything. I mean, they were basically every bad Gryffindor stereotype, y'know?” The statement made Arthur smile a little, and shrug.

“But they can fly.” The Ravenclaw pointed out, opening only one eye to look at Alfred from behind his bangs. “I have the worst grades in Broom Flight out of the whole school, do you know how shameful that is for a Ravenclaw? I mean, I’m supposed to be good at everything, aren’t I?”

Alfred shook his head with a light, childish laugh as he reclined to lie beside Arthur. “That’s impossible, ain’t it?” He remarked, still giggling. "So what if you can’t fly on a broom? Fuck flying! I mean, yeah, Ravenclaws are usually pretty intelligent, and you are! But, you’re also really creative, so if you can’t use a broom I’m sure you’ll find a way around it.“ He elbowed Arthur a bit, winking at him.

Arthur was still rather unconvinced, so Alfred continued.

"When I was eleven, I was all confused to end up in Hufflepuff, because, I’m not patient, and sometimes I’m lazy. Sometimes I rush into things but then I’m not very dedicated. But, then I remembered that, you get into your house based on which traits you value, not which traits you have. Y'know?” Alfred breathed deeply, frowning up at the sky. “ So I try real, real hard to be patient and loyal and all that other stuff. But I’m always gonna be an impatient person. Patience just don’t come natural. Just like flying doesn’t come natural to you! But the important part is that you tried, right? Now you can find a different solution.” He looked at Arthur, creasing his brow.

Arthur was silent for a long moment, and then nodded his head. “Fuck flying.” He replied at last, and his cheeks warmed when Alfred grinned at him.

Alfred got to his feet. “So, when can I see ya again?”

Arthur rose a brow curiously. “Alfred, I don’t believe I’ll be taking any more flying lessons. I’m sorry.”

“That wasn’t what I meant.” Alfred reached down and helped him up. “I wanna hang out. When are you free?”

Arthur rubbed his bruised and sore arm, taken aback by Alfred’s statement. “I, well, I suppose I’m free after classes on Friday,”

“Great! I’ll pick you up at Ravenclaw Tower.” Alfred beamed, and after walking towards the castle for a bit, it was evident that it hurt Arthur to move his legs. So, Alfred picked him up, holding him to his chest as he carried him in. Normally, Arthur would have complained, but he was too tired to mind it. Besides, it was…nice.

Arthur was starting to doze off when they reached the entrance to his common room, and started to rub his eyes. He was getting ready to answer the riddle.

There was a groan, and a deep, ancient voice.

“Up so late…let’s see…'Feed me and I’ll live, give me water and I’ll die’..”

Arthur pondered on the riddle for a moment, and had just come to the conclusion that the answer was fire. But, Alfred was already answering.

“The Wicked Witch of the West!” He grinned confidently, and the voice sighed.

“Techincally…yes.”

The door swung open, and Arthur blinked, looking up at Alfred. Alfred just grinned at him, proud of himself. Arthur gave a small smile, and an amused snort, which seemed to make Alfred’s grin widen. This Hufflepuff sure was something else.

Alfred looked around the common room and whistled. “Swanky place ya got here, Arthur. Which dorm is yours?” Arthur pointed, and Alfred dropped him off outside. They exchanged goodbyes, and Arthur watched with a smile as Alfred turned and left. Alfred was right. Fuck flying.

Arthur had a new interest now. Not in the broom itself, but in the wonderful yet ridiculous boy who flew it.


End file.
